Thursday, May 6, 2010

Another important court case

We're coming up on the sixth anniversary of gay marriage in Massachusetts! Eight gay couples and three widowers were in federal court in Boston to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) which specifies the federal government cannot recognize gay marriages. DOMA also says that states do not have to recognize each others gay marriages, but that provision is not before the court in this case.

The challengers are saying three things: "By singling out only the marriages of same-sex couples, DOMA violates the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution; DOMA represents an unprecedented intrusion of the federal government into marriage law, which for 230 years has been legislated by states; and by denying federal protections to families, DOMA burdens the marriages of same-sex couples and their right to maintain family integrity."

No word yet on how long the trial will last or when a decision will come. No doubt there will be an appeal, eventually to the Supremes. This trial is getting a lot less coverage than the Calif. trial that started in January (final arguments next month, a decision sometime after that).